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Child-evoked maternal negativity from 9 to 27 months: Evidence of gene–environment correlation and its moderation by marital distress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2014

R. M. Pasco Fearon ,
David Reiss ,
Leslie D. Leve ,
Daniel S. Shaw ,
Laura V. Scaramella ,
Jody M. Ganiban  and
Jenae M. Neiderhiser
R. M. Pasco Fearon*
Affiliation:
University College London
David Reiss
Affiliation:
Yale University
Leslie D. Leve
Affiliation:
University of Oregon and Oregon Social Learning Center
Daniel S. Shaw
Affiliation:
University of Pittsburgh
Laura V. Scaramella
Affiliation:
University of New Orleans
Jody M. Ganiban
Affiliation:
George Washington University
Jenae M. Neiderhiser
Affiliation:
Penn State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Pasco Fearon, Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK; E-mail: p.fearon@ucl.ac.uk.
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Abstract

Past research has documented pervasive genetic influences on emotional and behavioral disturbance across the life span and on liability to adult psychiatric disorder. Increasingly, interest is turning to mechanisms of gene–environment interplay in attempting to understand the earliest manifestations of genetic risk. We report findings from a prospective adoption study, which aimed to test the role of evocative gene–environment correlation in early development. Included in the study were 561 infants adopted at birth and studied between 9 and 27 months, along with their adoptive parents and birth mothers. Birth mother psychiatric diagnoses and symptoms scales were used as indicators of genetic influence, and multiple self-report measures were used to index adoptive mother parental negativity. We hypothesized that birth mother psychopathology would be associated with greater adoptive parent negativity and that such evocative effects would be amplified under conditions of high adoptive family adversity. The findings suggested that genetic factors associated with birth mother externalizing psychopathology may evoke negative reactions in adoptive mothers in the first year of life, but only when the adoptive family environment is characterized by marital problems. Maternal negativity mediated the effects of genetic risk on child adjustment at 27 months. The results underscore the importance of genetically influenced evocative processes in early development.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 27 , Issue 4pt1 , November 2015 , pp. 1251 - 1265
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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